Celestials (Race)
Experimenters, Analyzers, Probers and Testers | Identity = Secret | Affiliation = | BaseOfOperations = Mobile | BodyType = Humanoid | AvgHeight = Variable | AvgWeight = Variable | Eyes = | Hair = None | Skin = | NumberOfLimbs = 4 | NumberOfFingers = 5 | NumberOfToes = 5 | SpecialAdaptations = Armour | UnusualFeatures = | Origin = Alien cosmic beings often considered deities | GalaxyOfOrigin = | StarSystemOfOrigin = | HomePlanet = | PlaceOfBirth = | Creators = Jack Kirby; | First = Eternals #1 | Quotation = When the first of us appears to you, faithful one, look well upon his visage — and know the meaning of our mission! | Speaker = CelestialThe only utterance other than in the seemingly non-canonical Marvel Monsters: Devil Dinosaur, from Eternals 2 (1976 series) | HistoryText = The Celestials are a species of extremely powerful extra-terrestrial cosmic beings. The alien race influenced key events in human history for mysterious and unclear reasons. They were responsible for key human evolutionary events, such as the genetic-offshoot races the Eternals and the Deviants as well as the emergence of super-humans. They were also credited with influencing and aiding the development of some ancient advanced civilizations such as the Aztecs. Appearance The Celestials resemble massive armor-clad humanoids of enormous size, with most more than two thousand feet (600 meters) in height and some even larger. Agenda They were responsible for the creation of two offshoots of humanity — the [ Eternals and the Deviants — on Earth one million years ago . However, through Celestial experimentation, mainline humanity retained the greatest potential for superhuman abilities. The Celestials conducted similar experiments on other species, such as the Skrulls, whose main and Eternal branches were soon supplanted by the Deviant, shape-shifting branch of that race. The exact purpose of the Celestials' genetic manipulation was unknown, and they went to great lengths to preserve their freedom to conduct such experiments. Should an experimented race "fail" by the Celestials' standards, Arishem arrived on the target world to herald the coming of Exitar the Exterminator, a Celestial ten times his height that "purified" the offending world and race by destroying its non-life-affirming elements. Thor was on the planet Pangoria when this happened, and was told the issues at stake were "too great for even an immortal to grasp" . Due to their imposing presence, all-concealing armor, and seeming indifference to those whom they judge, the Celestials acquired the sobriquet of "Space Gods" used by many star-faring races. On their last visit to Earth-616 in the Fourth Host, the Celestials wiped all memory of their existence from most of humanity. The only entities remaining aware of the Celestials' existence were the Asgardians, who actively opposed the Celestials' unrevealed motives; the other pantheons; and Earth's Eternals and Deviants. In modern times, however, with the rise of superhumans, many superheroes rediscovered the existence of the Celestials. The Celestial Home Universe One of the most baffling aspects of the Celestials is their origin. No one, not even the Watchers, ever knew where they came from. Nathaniel Richards once speculated that they really lived in hyperspace, and that their sets of armor were channels in which they could exist in this reality. Another theory came from the mysterious "Celestial Universe" discovered during a trip through alternate realities by Dr. Doom, The Thing, The Human Torch and Sharon Ventura. It was a reality completely overrun by Celestials and was only seen very briefly. Another place thought to be the Celestial home-world by The Beyonder was a string of planets connected by Celestial technology. It was called the World Complex Headquarters and was converted into a tourist trap by various alien races so that they could view the Celestials daily. It turned out that The Celestials made this as an illusion to fool the Beyonder, and they also allowed him to beat them which in turn led to his rejection of friendship by the female mutant Tabitha Smith. There is also evidence that they were directly created by Eternity. However despite all these claims there are still no leads as to who the Celestials truly are and where they came from. Many alien races accepted a diversity of beliefs as to their origins. Some of these beliefs led to interstellar war between two or more races. The Watchers In opposition to the Celestials' agenda were the Watchers. Having sworn an oath of non-interference in species younger than themselves, the Watchers found the Celestials' genetic engineering of such species to be the antithesis of what they believed. Thus, the Watchers and the Celestials were in conflict for billions of years . The Monolith The creators of the legendary Black Monoliths were the Celestials, who had sent it to help record vast amounts of data over the centuries. An Arishem lookalike Celestial took off with the Monolith and Machine Man, (who was inside the Monolith at the time.) It was never revealed what happened to X-51 during his time with the Celestials. Later, however, the Celestials dumped Machine Man back on Earth after allowing him to travel with them for a time because they considered him to be "total ☠☠☠☠" . Great Cataclysm The Second Host of the Celestials arrived on Earth circa 16,000 BCE. The Deviants, in the middle of another assault on Atlantis, attacked the Celestial ship. In retaliation, the Celestials bombed Lemuria. At the same time, the Atlanteans opened their magma vents to drive off the Deviants. The bomb destroyed Lemuria, and the shock waves from it, combined with the open vents, sank Atlantis. This Great Cataclysm reshaped the Earth's surface . 11th century During the 11th Century, Thor faced off with the Celestial-powered being called Apocalypse. Seeking revenge, Thor blessed Jarnbjorn with his own blood to imbue it with the power to pierce Celestial armor. 12th century During 1150 A.D. in the Ho-Lo Shan Mountains of Northern Mongolia, China, Nur heard of a ruler, who was powered by an immense alien Ship which crashed, and sought him out as another immortal. In a confrontation, Nur slew all of Garbha-Hsien's guards. Garbha-Hsien then sought to humble his fellow 'forever-walker', by revealing the secret titanic vessel. Having had previous experience with futuristic technology, Nur attacked Garbha-Hsien and left the other immortal for dead. Not understanding how to kill an immortal, Garbha-Hsien survived and fled. After striking down Garbha-Hsien, Nur entered the Ship and lived on it for many years, not fully understanding how to communicate with it or control it. Using old hieroglyphs, Nur built a large Sphinx around the Ship, on his own, and began to hear a voice inside of his head. The voice belonged to the Celestial, Eson the Searcher, who spoke through telepathy and called Nur Apocalypse. Exon presented Nur with the proposition to use the technology on Ship to shape the destiny of the world, or simply leave and never remember anything. Nur accepted and Exon stated that one day, maybe in centuries or millennia, the Celestials would come for payments for their gifts. Shortly after finding the Ship, Nur and his Riders of the Dark were constantly attacked, by a young warrior with a sword and shield calling himself the Traveler. Fourth Host In the 20th century, a fourth host of Celestials arrived to Earth to judge the progress of the species they had manipulated, which triggered a war between the Deviants and the Eternals . Dreaming Celestial at San Francisco ... After Mr. Sinister tampered with the Dreaming Celestial the Host came to Earth, seeking retribution. Cyclops' Extinction Team faced them down and asked them to leave; they consented when the Dreaming Celestial itself told them to, pointing skyward. Mutant Rapture and Judgement of Earth Kang the Conqueror recovered Jarnbjorn from Baron Mordo's tomb in Brazil. Kang gave the axe to Uriel during his training to become the new Apocalypse. Uriel used the weapon to kill Celestial Gardener outside the Starcore Station. Alternate Universes Earth X (Earth-9997) According to the visions of Kyle Richmond, and the Watchers equipment, the Celestials came from the same universe as the Elders of the Universe. These beings would advance their natural evolution to such a state in which they would begin to lose all definition. In an attempt to maintain what little identity they had left, the Celestials would create giant suits of armor out of Vibranium to co-habitate. The Celestials also lost the means to reproduce, and would soon find a very devastating way around this: By "impregnating" a planet with a portion of their essence, it would become an "embryo" that would gestate and grow into a new member of their race. The planet in question would also be "injected" with Vibranium to form into a new shell for the newly born Celestial. As a form of protection of that growing Celestial, it's "parents" would manipulate the DNA of a planets dominant life form to gain super-abilities and unknowingly act as antibodies, protecting the planet until the Celestial is born. Each race they manipulated would have three tiers of mutation, the first would be for each individual to manifest their own powers. These powers usually would manifest when triggered by a catalyst (radiation for example), and the powers would vary depending on a number of factors, usually a combination of the outside catalyst and the subjects subconscious image of themselves. The second tier would be have every member of their race exhibit the same ability, and the third would be a total loss of identity, those at this stage would be defined by what others around believed them to be. This was installed as a fail-safe, should the Celestials ever have to quell a rebellion, it would be a matter of willing their wayward anti-bodes dead. The Celestials would soon over populate their home universe causing it's collapse and the event that would lead to it's own creation. This event would lead to the birth of Galactus, who unknown to most but the most cosmically aware was actually an equalizer to insure that the Celestials would never overpopulate the universe again by feeding on some of the planets they impregnate. In the early days of the new universe, the Watchers would be forced to maintain their pact of non-involvement by the Celestials after not acting to prevent the birth of Galactus, and then later interfering with an alien race which would then create atomic weapons that would destroy their world. The Celestials would then place a Watcher on a moon of each other worlds they impregnated. Forced to watch these worlds, the Watchers eventually would work to maintain the Celestials propagation roles, and at least in the case of Uatu, Earth's Watcher, interfere with events on the planet when they threatened the Celestial's plans. Over the centuries, the Celestials would be responsible for manipulating the Kree, the Skrulls, the Asguardian's and many more. The Earth became subject to one of the Celestial's propagation's during the time of the dinosaurs. Removing a portion of the Earth to create the moon, the Celestials were responsible for the dinosaurs extinction. They would place Uatu on Earth's moon. Next the Celestials would manipulate the DNA of mankind, however some tribes of humans would escape the Celestials manipulations, such as the Moon tribe. The Celestials would create the Deviants and the Eternals to keep the human race in check until they themselves would begin mutating with special powers due to their own natural evolution. The Celestials involvement in the universe since is presumably the same as that of Earth-616. In recent times, Reed Richards had succeeded in converting Galactus into a star, thus throwing off the universal balance, and being forced to work with the High Evolutionary and the Silver Surfer to advance his son Franklin's mutation to the third tier and convince him that he is Galactus in order to restore that balance. When the entire human race was mutated by the release of the Terrigen Mists in Earth's atmosphere, it sped up the natural process of the planets evolution. The Celestials would come to Earth in order to terminate the project, however they would get opposition by the new Galactus, who would fight them off until they retreated. Galactus would then kill the Celestial growing in Earth's core, but sparing the planet. It would cause the mass of the planet to change and throw it's axis off, but this too in time would be corrected. Since then, the Celestials have had no contact with Earth, nor are their current activities known, however X-51 had gathered a group of Heralds from other realities for the purpose of informing the Earth's of each reality of the potential danger of the Celestials. The Celestials' physical forms are almost completely lacking in definition, and are probably an energy base of some kind. In order to maintain individuality, they have constructed giant suits of armor to inhabit. These suits of armor are constructed out of Vibranium. They are an alien race that advanced it's natural evolution to a point in which their species almost lost all sense of identity. In order to maintain individuality, they would construct suits of armor to live in. Impregnating planets with their essence, they would reproduce. This brought upon the end of the previous universe. The Celestials survived the death of the old universe and have started their procreation anew. The Watchers were revealed to have been enslaved by the Celestials as guardians of unborn celestials which existed in certain planets such as Earth. Mutant X (Earth-1298) The only beings in the universe who were able to contain the Goblin Entity (they weren't able to kill it) prior to the birth of Scotty Summers. Mad Celestials (Earth-4280) The Celestials of this world became convinced they were gods and attempted to conquer the Multiverse by use of the Bridge. They were defeated by the combined forces of Galactus and a Franklin Richards from an alternate future. Ultimate Celestials (Celestial City) (Earth-1610) The people calling themselves The People are born from the SEAR government project to created new weapons in the meta-human arms race (additionally to stop the mutant contagion). Brainwashing thousands of people and injecting them with the Serum. (For more information: See Celestials (Earth-1610)). What If? Secret Wars (Earth-90251) Celestials of Earth-90251 was defeated by Doctor Doom. Marvel Adventures The Celestials visited Earth in the distant past, judging its primitive inhabitants. Their judgment is not known but one of the Celestials remained on Earth buried under a mountain. | Habitat = | Gravity = | Atmosphere = | Population = | Powers = Vast Cosmic Powers with no known upper limit. Armor able to withstand planet shattering impacts with ease. A single host has the power to threaten all the pantheons of gods in a planet. In fact, a single Celestial possesses the power to withstand attacks from three Skyfathers at the same time completely unfazed (including Odin and Zeus). Though not a feat of raw power but of durability, it still suggests that a Celestial is far more powerful than a Skyfather. | Abilities = Various | AvgStrength = Beyond Class 100 | Weaknesses = None known | GovernmentType = | TechnologyLevel = Highly Advanced | CulturalTraits = | Representatives = Arishem (Earth-616).jpg|Arishem the Judge Ashema (Earth-616) 0001.jpg|Ashema the Listener Tiamut (Earth-616).jpg|Tiamut, The Dreaming Celestial Eson (Earth-616).jpg|Eson the Searcher Exitar (Earth-616).jpg|Exitar the Executioner Gammenon (Earth-616) 0001.jpg|Gammenon the Gatherer Hargen (Earth-616).jpg|Hargen the Measurer Jemiah (Earth-616).jpg|Jemiah the Analyzer Nezarr (Earth-616).jpg|Nezarr the Calculator One Above All (Celestial) (Earth-616).png|The One Above All Oneg (Earth-616).jpg|Oneg the Prober Tefral (Earth-616).jpg|Tefral the Surveyor Ziran (Earth-616).jpg|Ziran the Tester Devron (Earth-616).jpg|Devron the Experimenter Gamiel (Earth-616).jpg|Gamiel the Manipulator Scathan2.jpg|Scathan the Approver Red Celestial from Thor 417.jpg|The Red Celestial Blue Celestial from Thor 424.jpg|The Blue Celestial Needed.png|The Red/Blue Judge Needed.png|Monolith Gatherer Celestial Gardener (Earth-616) from Uncanny Avengers Vol 1 7.jpg|The Celestial Gardener Antibodies & Other Tools Celestial_Antibodies.jpg|Antibodies Celestial_Antibody_Humanoid.jpg|Humanoids Celestial_Antibody_Nameless.jpg|Nameless | Notes = * The concept of the Celestials and their involvement in human history may have been inspired by the theories of Erich von Däniken, which were first explored in the 1968 book Chariots of the Gods. * Brio, one of the Proemial Gods (the first lifeforms to appear in the current universe), bears a resemblance to the Celestials. Her connection (if any) has yet to be explained, though she was tasked with "the welfare of fledgling lifeforms," a task similar to that carried out by the Celestials. * It is possible that the only one who really knows the truth behind the origin of the Celestials was the Supreme Being (seen by some as Jack Kirby), the creator of the Marvel Multiverse. * The legendary Black Monolith from Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey entered Marvel Continuity long ago (Mostly because of nostalgia, since Machine Man's first appearance was in the 2001 Comics). In the final issue of ''Machine Man'' it was revealed that the creators of the Monolith were the Celestials, who had sent it to help record vast amounts of data over the centuries. | Trivia = The Celestials word for mankind is "aduum" according to | Links = *Knightmare6.com; Marvel Cosmic Entities *The Grand Comics Database *The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators }} fr:Célestes hu:Égiek